Society of Imaginary Friends - The Moors

  by Helen Tipping

published: 9 / 11 / 2008

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Review

There’s something of Kate Bush in the atmospheric haunting music and soaring vocals, except Louise Kleboe’s voice is deeper and more sexy, whereas Bush could tend towards a whispering girlishness. 'The Moors', the title track of her band Society of Imaginary Friends' new EP features an accordion which takes it to the edge of the moors over Whitby way or down in the West Country where moors meet the sea. I like this track, with its wild romantic sound mixed with a sea shanty. Second track , 'The Lovely Rain', is another track full of beautiful haunting soundscapes and Kleboe’s evocative vocals. I can’t, however, imagine going to a gig and getting into this music. Despite it containing elements of folk music it’s not the kind of thing you can dance along to. The third track is called 'Windows' and is a bonus track not on the group's self-titled debut album which the other tracks come from. When I first heard this I thought that I had spent too long on computers and breathed a sigh of relief that it was not actually about any Microsoft products. This was short lived, as I son realised that guitarist Dan Powell, whose vocals this time take centre stage, is in fact singing about a computer performing an illegal operation! Layers of vocals and music build up, creating a threatening atmosphere that was absent at the start of the track. 'Windows' is theatrical in the extreme, with the vocals sounding like a medieval choral performance – it would make a fantastic cinematic accompaniment to the death of a cyborg. Society of Imaginary Friends have already provided one piece for the soundtrack of the McLibel movie, and I can see further collaborations being likely.

Track Listing:-

1 The Moors
2 The Lovely Rain
3 Windows